Its stale news now that President Goodluck Ebele Azikwe Jonathan is the president-elect and will be sworn in May 29 to lead this country for the next four years. It is also stale news that the majority of the local and international observers thought this was an above average election on the free, fair and credible scale, though not close to perfection. 48 hours after the result was confirmed, I can tell you a lot has happened within that time. A lot is categorized by the violence that erupted in the North. The media frenzy that followed this election is a welcome development in not only the information dissemination of the election proper, but also in that it is a major boost at a time where Africa needs to catch up with the use of the Internet and other social medias such as facebook and twitter to drive for transparency and accountability in the African leadership. Let us discuss the predictability of Ebele’s win.
You would not know much of Nigeria’s history if you did not expect Goodluck to win. You would be forgiven if you expected it to be a close battle, possibly a runoff between Goodluck and General Buhari. The reality though is that Goodluck won out rightly. It was expected to be a battle between North and South. So it turned out to be. What raises our hair though is the appeal Jonathan had in the North.
We noticed from this election that Nigerians did not vote for the party but for the individual in this presidential election. PDP has done enough in the last 12 years to ensure they would not be in Aso-Rock, Nigerian’s presidential residence, come May 29th but Good luck’s mass appeal has to be commended. While Goodluck was claiming wide margins of victories in the south-south and south-east of over 98%, he was coming close seconds to Buhari in the North with as low as 15% margins of victory for Buhari in the North. If these margins were not so close in the North, there was the very high possibility of a run-off between the PDP and CPC candidates, as you have to have two thirds of the vote in each of the 6 geopolitical zones or 25% of the electorate in each state.
As a person, Goodluck is liked by many as he seems to be one man who rose from the same challenges a majority of the people faced to be leader, and still seems to retain his calm. I can forgive Buhari though for thinking there must have been some rigging as the close to 99% Goodluck claimed in some states seem to be just excessive but maybe the man is just so loved there. Buhari has conceded that though he thought there was some irregularity, he would personally not be going to any court, except the leadership of his party thought it wise to go ahead. With this, he neither accepts the result-as he has not made any move yet to congratulate President Goodluck, nor this he reject his result. A move I think he is making for the sake of peace in the Nation. He has even gone as far as publicly distancing himself and the CPC from the rioters.
Some loyal Nigerian, I presume I can call them that, have taken it into their hands though, to show their unhappiness at the outcome of this election. They resulted to violence at a high scale, torching people’s homes, killing people and unfortunately some members of the youth service corps, participating as adhoc staff in this election. It is too early to associate this to any party and I sincerely feel no party has gone ahead to make them do this. Many of them have come out to result to this as they do not understand why a country with a “majority of northerners” would have an election won by southerners when they as Northerners voted for their likes. This disgust was expressed by torching home’s of credible northerners who supported the ambition of the southerner in Goodluck. PDP chairmen of Gombe and Kaduna, the Vice President- Nnamdi Sambo have lost properties in Gombe, Kaduna and Zaira. It is also unconfirmed news that the Gombe PDP chairman lost 3 children in the malaise.
I sincerely expected this though as many of this perpetrators are illiterate, uneducated, unemployed youths who find violence as a solution to many problems. Someone even joked to me that the youths of Kaduna would still have marred themselves in violence if Buharia won, on the basis of over jubilation or just to molest southerners in their state. Sadly, I might have to agree with this joke. What I did not expect or understand is the killing of the young men and women of the Nigerian Youth Services Corps, who have volunteered themselves to a national duty in the fight for national growth through a credible electoral process to produce credible leaders to take us to our promise land. I sincerely hope INEC, NYSC and the government are working round the clock on the safety of youth corps members, the compensation of the families who are affected and ways to avoid the breaking out of such violence.
At this juncture, it would be right to commend the Nigerian Police Force, The Nigerian Army,the media, local and international observers, the electorate, INEC, all ad hoc staff of INEC- University Professors and NYSC members for their role in the election. There is so much room for improvement towards perfection but your effort till now shows there is hope for the future and Nigeria can one day know peace, security, good governance and unity. President-elect Goodluck Jonathan, I must remind you that the work ahead of you is enormous and you must approach it head on, knowing that anything short of success will catapult this country back to the dungeons of unrest and poverty.
